Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 8872
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Casagrande , Carla.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The Protected Woman [Writers of didactic and pastoral literature aimed at women classified their intended female audience in various ways (by marital status, age, social status, or family role), but these texts shared many of the same values. They state that since women are weak and inconstant, they cannot be their own guardians and must submit to the authority of men. Instead of living in the public sphere, women should focus on the domestic sphere and discipline themselves. These texts discourage excessive attention to exterior concerns like clothing and cosmetics and instead encourage cultivating the inner virtues of chastity, humility, modesty, sobriety, silence, industriousness, and mercy. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: A History of Women in the West. Volume 2: Silences of the Middle Ages.  Edited by Christiane Klapisch-Zuber.  Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.  Pages 70 - 104.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Handbooks Human Behavior Literature- Prose Pastoral Care Private Sphere and Public Sphere Readers Women in Literature Women's Nature
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: General
  • Century: General
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
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  • Author's Affiliation: University of Pavia
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0674403711